Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/116

 102 STRABO. BOOK I. Here too his reasoning is incorrect. For this speculation respecting the temperate zone which wejnhabit. and whereof the habitable earth is a part, devolves properly on. those who make mathematics their study. But it is not equally the province of one treating of the habitable earth. For by this term we mean only that portion of the temperate zone where we dwell, and with which we are acquainted. But it is quite possible that in the temperate zone there may be two or even more habitable earths, especially near the circle of latitude which is drawn through Athens and the Atlantic Ocean. After this he returns to the form of_the earth, which he again declares to be sr^heroidal. Here he exhibits the same churl- ishness we have previously pointed out, and goes on abusing Homer in his old style. He proceeds : 7. " There has been much argument respecting the conti- nents. Some, considering them to be divided by the rivers Nile and Tanais, 1 have described them as islands ; while others sup- pose itKenTto be peninsulas connected by the isthmuses between the Caspian and the Euxine Seas, and between the Erythraean Sea 2 and Ecregma." 3 He adds, that this question does not ap- pear to him to be of any practical importance, but rather, as Democritus observed, a bonej)fj2ojitenj;^^ Where there are no preciselxmndary marks, columns, or walls, as at Colvjttus and Melite, 4 it is easy for us to say such a place is Colyttus, and such another Melite ; but not so easy to show the exact limits: thus disputes have frequently arisen con- cerning certain districts ; that, for instance, between the Argives and Lacedaemonians concerning [the possession of] Thyrea, 5 and that between the Athenians and Bo30tians re- lative to Oropus. 6 Further, in giving names to the three con- tinents, the Greeks did not take into consideration the whole habitable eafttlTtmt merely^jtJieinjQffin_country and the land exactly opposite, namely, Caria, which is now inhabitecf~Dy 1 The Nile being thought to separate Africa from Asia, and the Tanais, pxDo^Eujiipe^ 2 The Red Sea - 3~Th"enamebf the mouth of the lake Sirbonis or Sebaket-Bardoil, which opens into the Mediterranean. A line drawn from this embouch- ure to the bottom of the Arabian Gulf, would give the boundary between Africa and Asia. 4 Places in Attica. 5 Probably Thyrqs, a place situated close to the sea, just at the bound ary of the two countries. 6 Oropo, on the confines of Attica and Boeotia.